


targeted compassion

by shanlyrical



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Tatooine (Star Wars), Teaching, Womp Rats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23823172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanlyrical/pseuds/shanlyrical
Summary: Beru teaches Luke how to shoot at womp rats.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Beru Whitesun
Comments: 19
Kudos: 43
Collections: May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020





	targeted compassion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



“Beru, I saw womp rats on the eastern ridge.”

“I’ll deal with them.”

Uncle Owen nodded gruffly and patted Aunt Beru on the shoulder. “I have a meeting with a wholesaler in Anchorhead later,” he said. “Don’t wait up.”

After Uncle Owen was gone, Beru finished what she had been doing in the kitchen. Then she retrieved her blaster rifle. “Come with me,” she said to Luke. It was not phrased as a request.

People on Tatooine often shot womp rats for sport, but the two-meter long creatures were not to be underestimated. Womp rats were smart, territorial, and highly aggressive when provoked. They also tended to congregate in large family groups. Populations, if left unchecked, could, within a single season, completely overrun and destroy a hundred hectares of prime moisture farm property.

Luke and Aunt Beru took the landspeeder and drove out towards the eastern ridge. Luke surveyed the terrain with a pair of macrobinoculars from the passenger seat, pointing out areas that looked most heavily pockmarked by the womp rats’ subterranean excavations. Eventually they found a likely spot to set down and wait. Beru had the loaded blaster rifle balanced on her shoulder, ready to take aim and fire.

They didn’t have to wait for very long. A womp rat emerged from a burrow entrance. It stopped to sit back on its haunches and scent the air.

 _Psshm!_ Beru’s shot hit the womp rat full in the chest. The womp rat shrieked and scurried back into its burrow.

 _Psshm! Psshm!_ Beru blasted two more womp rats in quick succession.

Over the next half-hour, she managed to tag more than thirty individuals. Luke felt inordinately proud. His Aunt Beru was a crack shot with a blaster rifle. If she entered into those competitions they held at Beggar’s Canyon, she might even win. Wouldn’t that be just—

“Would you like to try?” Aunt Beru asked Luke suddenly.

Would he ever! After reloading with a new plasma cartridge, Aunt Beru handed the blaster rifle over to Luke.

His first shot went wide. So did his second.

“Don’t get excited. Breathe. Concentrate,” Aunt Beru admonished gently. “Pick your shot. Only fire once you’re sure of hitting your target.”

 _Psshm!_ Third time was the charm. The womp rat shrieked, bared its yellow fangs at Luke, and dashed back to the safety of the underground.

Aunt Beru took the blaster rifle from Luke. “Very good. I knew you could do it,” she said.

Luke beamed with pride. This was the first time he’d shot a womp rat! But… “Aunt Beru, I don’t understand. Why don’t we kill the womp rats? Why do we just scare them? Setting the blaster rifle to stun – isn’t that just a waste of good plasma?”

Aunt Beru turned to face Luke. Her expression was serious. “The purpose is to teach the womp rats not to encroach on our lands. Killing a few disrupts their social bonds and makes the survivors more dangerous to people. If we killed them all, new womp rats would simply move in and replace the ones we’d killed, and then we’d have to deal with those, too. If we killed them all again, still more would come…”

“And we’d be here killing womp rats forever,” Luke supplied.

“Exactly. Killing isn’t always the answer, Luke. Sometimes mercy is the truer course.”

Luke nodded slowly, digesting this new information. It was a good lesson, he decided, one he’d take to heart.


End file.
